Title

Authors

Document Type

Dissertation

Publication Date

Spring 4-6-1961

Abstract

It was the purpose of this study to examine the opinions of mothers concerning services offered in the nursing conference for well child supervision in three areas: direct child care, emotional support, and anticipatory guidance for mothers. A semantic word differential type of questionnaire was used to measure the mothers’ opinions. By assigning numerical values to the selections on the questionnaires, it was possible to use the scores obtained to determine whether the opinions of the services were favorable or unfavorable. Analysis of the data revealed that mothers had an overall favorable opinion of the services. The opinions relating to direct child care showed a more favorable opinion than did those relating to emotional support and anticipatory guidance. The items relating to anticipatory guidance demonstrated the least favorable opinions of the three categories, but was still favorably skewed. Conclusions of this study were that the nursing conferences were well accepted by the majority of the mothers who participated in the study, but that the areas of emotional support and anticipatory guidance were not recognized by some mothers as useful. Recommendations were made that the nurse in the conferences should work toward better interpretation of her counseling and educative functions, and that the nursing conferences be continued.